Wayfair Raises $36 Million in Search of Home Decor Dominance

By

Matthew Lynley

Dec 10, 2012 8:30 am ET

Wayfair

Niraj Shah, CEO and co-founder of Wayfair, on the left, and chairman and co-founder Steve Conine on the right.

Wayfair, a Boston-based network of retail sites that focuses on home decor, has raised $36 million in its second round of funding amid rapid expansion of its third retail branch: a flash-sales site called Joss & Main.

Joss & Main, which offers a curated shopping experience similar to sites like Fab and One Kings Lane, has grown over the course of a year to have about a $100 million annual revenue run rate, said Wayfair CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah.

In total, the Wayfair network has a $600 million in projected annual sales based on its sales figures in recent months. Wayfair’s previous funding round amounted to $165 million in June last year.

It’s raising the funding to support its newest site in an attempt to capture a more significant chunk of the $30 billion online market for home decor goods. It’s similar to One Kings Lane, but that site focuses on high-end goods while Joss & Main focuses on more accessible prices.

“This is not an easy market to master due to a number of factors ranging from the complexities of shipping over-sized and fragile items to establishing a broad enough supplier base to offer shoppers the selection and prices they expect in online retail,” said Neeraj Agrawal, an investor and general partner at Battery Ventures.

We caught up with Shah to find out more about the funding round and his hopes for the company. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview.

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